antivirus over large network

[hobey19]

alright, let me preface this by saying my school recently had a large virus epidemic which caused our ISP to shut us down because we were distributing viruses to all of their customers. for a HS with about 400 computers, we totaled out to just over 32000 virusess. some of the teachers had not updated their virus protection since 1999. needless to say, the admin was fired, and the principal asked for my input, as the computer lab i was in charge of had no viruses whatsoever (using avg instead of symantec).

so, what i wanted to know is if anyone has used any of the programs which allow virus scans from the server to all of the workstations. one common virus database, and server-controlled systems scans. teachers never run them, so we want to take it out of their hands and make it more reliable. i was looking at AVG Network Edition, which is a viable and cost-effective solution. But I was wondering if someone could make anay suggestions on this type of software. i wouldn't even mind sticking with symantec, we just need to take it out of the teachers hands. thanks a lot for the help

craig

[corosus]

this might sound stupid but couldn't you just set up the individual virusscanner to update automaticly?

[hobey19]

definite possibility, problem is, is that we need the same software on all of the computers to keep things consistent, and we need to upgrade everything anyway. we still have people running win95 and so we were going to do all of the updates at once, AV and OS and even whole new computers. some of the teachers have disabled "that annoying little live update pop-up" that keeps telling them to install updates. updates wouldn't be a big deal, but we need to be able to run scans over the network

craig

[kram 2.0]

Yes, there is a way to get the firewall/ virus installed right into the server. Our school does that and it has served us well. We started out wiht the TrendMicro product - it didn't work very well - spam and viri or all sorts were coming in. But now, we have the Barracuda, which is very efficient, in my opinion. No spam/viri has been detected by my computer AV, that is not by the server.

EDIT: The Spam filter was done by barracuda, and the viri detection was done by Trend OfficeScan Server Edition.

Needless to say, anything that is caught by the server firewall won't be by the computer AV. Using lets say Barracuda, that will block off the viruses from the start in the server should help filter a ton of them. Also, I don't know about costs, but I believe Bull Guard is the most effective AV out there so far. If you want to do individual AV, then go with that. The reason I haven't picked it, was that other AVs were within my budget (I have Trend PC-Cillin - works great so far).

Hope that helps,
kram

[hobey19]

does barracuda allow a scan from the network level (ie hit "scan network" and it will scan all of the computers on the network) because that is really what i am looking for. i need it to be something that is in the hands of one person and not the teachers. thanks for the advice on barracuda and i am going to search the site for info

craig

[Statica]

I'd look into deploying something like Trend VirusWall. Whatever you go and spend your $ on for an enterprise level antivirus solution, make sure you evaluate it thoroughly before going buying it. Run VirusWall and see how it suites your needs.

[homer15]

with norton av corporate edition, you install the server portion on the server, then the client on each individual machines... the machines recieve their updates automatically from the server, and you can run virus scans from the server.

[hobey19]

do you have a link to that, i googled it and got to trendmicro's site, but i am having a hard time finding it

thanks
craig

[hobey19]

Originally posted by homer15 with norton av corporate edition, you install the server portion on the server, then the client on each individual machines... the machines recieve their updates automatically from the server, and you can run virus scans from the server.

that is what we have, so it is just not being used correctly. thanks, that is what i need to know. now i just need to read up on corp and see how to do it, because i know he will be happy to know we don't need any more software.

let me just make sure we are on the same page - i can initiate scans of all of the computers on the network from the server is that correct? one computer controls them all? thanks.

craig

[homer15]

that's exactly right... as long as the computers are on, that is.

i would have your server look for new virus definitions every morning at like 4, that way they will be ready to go by the time the computers get turned on all over your school.

nav corp is a great tool, and it's easy to use, so it shouldn't be hard to get it going on the right track again.

[hobey19]

thanks, yeah, like i said, our admin was fired because of this epidemic. do you know if there is an online manual that i could download, because i would like to get us fixed asap so we can be back online

thanks
craig

[homer15]

what version do you have?

the cd should have a lot of documentation on it, if you want to check that.

[hobey19]

i have no idea what version we have, i am just a student, but i can get access to it through our principal pretty easy. thanks for the advice, as long as there is a good amount of documentation i will be all set

craig

[padawan]

Our HS just had the same problem, although our admin didn't get fired. We have 28 school sites and the school budget only allows for 6 IT people. Go figure, why things get out of hand.

I keep my classroom lab up to date, but I know non-computer teachers have no idea what to do.

I second the NAV Corp, it works great for what you need.

[hobey19]

yeah, we have only 10 school sites with one IT person, but she is incompetent, this was teh nail in her coffin

craig